2 guns used by infamous bandits to be auctioned

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Bidders will get a chance later this month to own two weapons once owned by Bonnie and Clyde.

The owners of a tommy gun and a 12-gauge 1897 Winchester shotgun that were used by the outlaw couple will put them up for auction in Kansas City on Jan. 21.

The Joplin Globe reports (http://bit.ly/zsHMgS) that the weapons were among those seized during a raid of Bonnie and Clyde’s apartment in Joplin on April 13, 1933. Until recently, the guns were displayed at the Springfield Police Museum.

The guns are owned by the great-grandchildren of Mark Lairmore, a Tulsa, Okla., man who was a police detective at the time of the raid. They say their great-grandfather was given the guns by a police officer who was involved in the Joplin raid.